My Ranking of 2016 Movies

In a surprising twist, I not only managed to see all ten of my most anticipated movies of 2016, but they were also the only ten 2016 releases I’ve seen thus far. So this isn’t actually a top 10 so much as a ranking of the ten movies I did see.

10. X-Men: Apocalypse

Not that great, but there was one really funny line that my husband and I will be quoting forever now: “The most American thing about this place is that it used to be British.”

#8 on my most anticipated list

9. Independence Day: Resurgance

This movie was entertaining enough, but definitely not great.

#9 on my most anticipated list

8. The 5th Wave

This movie met my not super high expectations. It was enjoyable for a watch and Leiv Shrieber was perfect in his role.

#10 on my most anticipated list

7. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

I was just slightly disappointed in this one. I did enjoy the characters, but the story was just sort of so-so, split between a dark storyline and a lighter storyline, that inevitably intertwined in an alright way. I think I’ll like it more once the story unfolds more and I can see the bigger picture.

#3 on my most anticipated list

6. Jason Bourne

While not the strongest Bourne offering, I did enjoy this one.

#7 on my most anticipated list

5. Star Trek Beyond

A fun addition to the rebooted Trek franchise.

#6 on my most anticipated list

4. Captain America: Civil War

An addition to the Marvel universe that managed to introduce us to new characters, make us excited for their movies, and further delve into the psyches of both Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. A solid film, but had I do have some quibbles with it.

#1 on my most anticipated list

3. Finding Dory

A sweet sequel I never really needed, but am happy to have.

#2 on my most anticipated list

I thought I had settled in my mind my 1 and 2 choices, but I found myself flip-flopping on it. So let’s consider this last two a tie for number one…

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I thought this movie was solid. It wasn’t perfect, but the last act, especially the climax, was fantastic. I loved Jyn and Cassian even though they weren’t as fleshed-out as I would have liked, and I felt I was able to fill in some of the blanks for myself. The message of this one was profound for me and has really stuck with me a couple weeks after viewing it; I feel Ella summed it up beautifully on her blog. I am actually thinking about checking out the novelization of this movie so I can get even more details.

#5 on my most anticipated list

Doctor Strange

Yes, this movie is pretty formulaic. But I came to care for Stephen Strange and his character arc, and it also had themes I found profound.I especially loved how the Ancient One tells Stephen both that not everything’s about him that and that he’s more than just some molecules floating around in the universe. It has its flaws, but I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

4 Responses to My Ranking of 2016 Movies

I’ve only seen five of these films! Dr. Strange is the one I really wish I watched when it came out. I’m a little sad that it didn’t get as many rave reviews as I was hoping, but I look forward to seeing it soon, especially since it made it to the top of your list!

I really liked Dr. Strange as well. Scott Derrickson was an interesting choice as the director and he slipped a lot of interesting ideas into the story. About our grasping for immortality and stuff. And I love Benedict Cumberbatch in it. I also thought Rachel McAdams character was fantastic and that Marvel doesn’t let their female characters do enough (except Pepper and she’s not even the greatest).

Rogue One, I had some issues with as well but overall thought it was kind of great sci-fi. i might think that because I don’t have enough sci-fi in my life 😉 Love the link you added though, interesting and thought provoking stuff.

I didn’t see Finding Dory but I *loved* Civil War. I was a bit sad that it wasn’t entirely a Captain America movie because there are so many other characters in it. But I liked Black Panther and really like the evolution of Bucky and of course Spider-man and Ant-man were hilarious and welcome editions so it all worked out quite nicely.

Star Trek Beyond I caught on a plane (I think – I was traveling in some capacity) and I would have liked it better if I didn’t see the ending coming from so far away. No! I saw it in the theater when my best friend was visiting – that’s why I think of it in connection with a trip. Anyway, overall I thought it was a nice portrayal of like straight up Star Trek with the humor and the ideology and the action and all.

I didn’t love Fantastic Beasts. Mostly it was the dark story and that I didn’t feel it mingled well with the light story. The setting was consistent but in some ways if felt like they were trying to fuse to very different tones in a single film and it didn’t work for me. Also, the dark story was soooo dark. Like almost oppressive which a little bit was something they were going for but really, I just didn’t enjoy.

Independence Day Resurgence, you’re totally right was entertaining enough. Total side note – when you watch it with closed captioning on and a 12 year old kid…. they curse a lot more than I realized!

X-Men Apocalypse – I love James McAvoy as Professor X so much that I will kind of watch anything. Which is why I love Days of Future Past so much. But, yeah, Apocalypse was not great. It was barely good. And you know what, if it was on tv one night I’d totally watch it again.